The Charlotte Hornets are headed north of the border on Friday, visiting the Toronto Raptors amid a stretch that has seen the Hornets lose 5 of their previous six video games.
That features three discouraging losses in a row. Since March 21, Charlotte (18-54) has suffered a 35-point loss to the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, a 17-point loss to the struggling Miami Warmth and a seven-point loss to the Orlando Magic in a recreation that was tied after three quarters. The Hornets are assured to complete with fewer than 30 wins for the third consecutive season and at present maintain the league’s third-worst file.
Whereas it hasn’t been the season coach Charles Lee and the Hornets hoped for, Lee remains to be agency in his perception that Charlotte is constructing a profitable group.
“The aim for us was to create a typical of competitiveness,” Lee mentioned. “Create an setting of simply work and obsession with day by day enchancment, observe days, weight room classes, our diets, recreation days, all of it. Simply loving the entire journey. The third half was like, constructing an setting of togetherness and a tradition of togetherness as a result of we undergo this journey collectively. I feel that each one these objectives are nonetheless in movement and I am joyful as hell with them.”
Whereas LaMelo Ball is the staff’s season-long scoring chief at 25.2 factors per recreation, Miles Bridges has been carrying Charlotte’s offense essentially the most in latest months. Bridges has led the Hornets in scoring 18 instances of their previous 30 video games courting again to Jan. 27, together with a career-high 46 factors towards the Cleveland Cavaliers on March 7 and a game-winning 3-pointer towards the San Antonio Spurs on Feb. 7. Brandon Miller was averaging 21 factors per recreation earlier than he went down for the season in January with a wrist damage.
The Raptors (26-47) entered this week on a skid, sustaining their fourth straight loss in a 123-89 rout by the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday. Toronto responded on Monday, nonetheless, beating the Washington Wizards 112-104 on the second leg of a back-to-back. That momentum carried into Wednesday night time in Brooklyn. The Raptors put forth one in all their finest efforts of the season, beating the Nets 116-86 in a convincing wire-to-wire effort.
RJ Barrett leads Toronto in scoring at 21.3 factors per recreation. Scottie Barnes is the staff’s engine on each ends of the ground, averaging 19.5 factors, 7.8 rebounds and 5.9 assists per recreation. Barnes additionally averages a mixed 2.5 steals and blocks per recreation, main the staff.
“Every part that Scottie does is essential for us and we as a staff,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic mentioned. “We go so far as Scottie goes. I am encouraging him, he is our chief. He units the tone on the defensive finish. He units the tone with the way in which he performs, with ball motion, with power. He is consistently enhancing in all points of his recreation.”
Immanuel Quickley additionally contributes 17.4 factors per recreation in his 29 appearances up to now this season, whereas Jakob Poeltl averages 14.4 factors and a team-high 9.6 rebounds per recreation for Toronto.
–Area Stage Media
